


Elegy

by Mareel



Series: Always [49]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Comfort, Destroy Ending, Drabble Sequence, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, London, Love, M/M, Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, Memorials, Music, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-14
Updated: 2015-04-14
Packaged: 2018-03-22 20:39:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3742828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/pseuds/Mareel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Music transforms personal grief into something universal. Kaidan brings it back to the personal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Elegy

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in London one year after the Reaper War was won ( _Mass Effect 3_ : Extended Cut, _destroy_ ending). It is a set of four drabbles. The first two are in Liara's voice. The third and fourth are from Kaidan and Shepard respectively. 
> 
> The asari musician is the daughter of Liara's friend, Dr. Olena, who once taught her a song on the piano which she later shared with Shepard.
> 
> Written for a drabble challenge and inspired by a musical prompt.

 

The war is over. 

A year ago tonight saw an end to terror descending from the sky. The Reapers ceased to be a threat. Simply ceased to _be_ , on Earth and all worlds. At great cost. 

I had two friends. One lived – Shepard somehow survived what he unleashed upon the Reapers, but still searches for his own peace. My other friend perished, but lives on in her songs and in her daughter.

Tonight, she looks small and alone, the young asari in a simple white gown. Lifting a violin to her shoulder, she closes her eyes and releases the music.  
 

_________________________________

 

It begins gently. 

An unaccompanied melody unfurls, gradually rising. It tries to soar, but an increasingly imperative low drone seems to ground it. Against dark chords from the piano, the intervals hint at dissonance, modulating, searching for a clear path. 

She lowers her bow, letting the relentless chords almost resolve before making another melodic attempt. This movement is all minors, lonely, elegiac. The battle is over... it is time to mourn, to remember. 

Finally the solo violin reprises the opening theme, but this time it does rise, swell... not soaring, but borne along on a wind or a wave, finally dying away to silence.

_________________________________

 

Shepard didn't want to attend the London memorial. 

Not because he didn't believe there should be some commemoration on the first anniversary of the end of the war; he just didn't want to draw any personal attention. He'd been adamant about it, telling me 'This should be about everyone who didn't make it, Kaidan. A time to remember all the sacrifices.'

But when Liara told him about the _Elegy_ composed by the daughter of her dear friend who'd been lost, he agreed to attend if we could slip in quietly. 

Tears wet his scarred cheeks as he finally lets himself grieve.

_________________________________

 

It finally feels real. 

Everyone lost someone in the war... some lost too many. I know why we had to fight, but it cost so much. 

There was resistance to having an asari musician express our grief. I've never asked for much, but I exerted a little pressure about that. It was the cooperation of many worlds that defeated the Reapers. All of them suffered.

Kaidan was right to insist we attend. Sitting close together, my hand in his, I watch his face during the music. His eyes are wet. I barely catch his whispered words.

"I nearly lost _you_."

 


End file.
